Chapter 447 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

He knew he needed to get off the bed and get ready to leave for the office if he wanted to get to work on time as he usually did, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do so.

He didn’t know what was bothering him and try as he might to figure it out, he couldn’t place a finger on it. At first, he had thought he was thinking about Jade, but once he focused his thoughts on her, he realized almost immediately that she wasn’t what was bothering him.

After over an hour of thinking about it, he had come to the conclusion that this was just one of those mornings where he was low on morale, and he feared that he was going to end up firing anyone who didn’t do what was expected of them.

At least now that Benne had revealed his identity, he could call in sick and have Benne attend to everything in his stead while he took the day off to just rest as he was really not in the mood to face anyone.

He groaned inwardly and glanced at his door when his father knocked on it, wishing his father hadn’t chosen to come visiting at a time like this when he wanted nothing more than to be left alone.

“Harry? Can I come in?” Aaron asked as he turned the doorknob.

“I didn’t say you could come in,” Harry said with a scowl when his father walked in.

“You didn’t say I couldn’t come in either. Why are you still on your bed? Are you fine?” Aaron asked with concern as he went to sit on the edge of the bed.

“I’m okay. Did you want something?” Harry asked as he rolled off the bed, and Aaron followed him with his eyes.

“Yes. About the lady you talked about yesterday…”

“Not now, Dad. Please,” Harry said stiffly as he walked into his closet to take out the clothes he would be wearing to the office, and Aaron stood up to follow him.

“When is it going to be then? Give me a suitable time you’d be comfortable having the conversation, and then we can discuss it,” Aaron said, feeling pressed for time as he needed to push Harry to make a move before his mother did anything.

He had been unable to sleep all night because he had been too worried about the call he had received from her and her threat to approach Harry if he failed to talk to tell Harry about her. He had thought long and hard about the pros and cons of telling Harry the truth, and he wasn’t sure he could do it.

“Why? Can’t we just have a normal conversation anymore without it being about me being in a relationship?…”

“I just want to see you in a happy relationship.”

“What’s the rush for? It’s not like there is a time limit to being in a happy relationship…”

“What if I was dying?” Aaron cut in, fed up with Harry’s continuous stubbornness.

“DAD!” Harry yelled angrily as he turned to glare at his father, who was standing at the closet door.

“Just listen to me, okay? I want to meet this girl you talked about before I travel back,” Aaron said, a note of urgency in his tone.

“Why? Why is it so important to you? Is there something you are not telling me about? Are you ill?” Harry asked, watching his father suspiciously, but Aaron shook his head.

“Do I have to be ill in order to see your girlfriend? I’m just fed up with your excuses! I want to see you in a relationship!” Aaron yelled in frustration.

“And what if I don’t want to be in a relationship? Or does what I want not matter to you anymore?” Harry yelled back irritably.

Seeing how annoyed Harry was beginning to get, Aaron sighed and dropped both hands to his side, “What you want matters. It will always matter. Your happiness matters to me, so I’m begging you not to waste any more time,” Aaron pleaded, his shoulders drooped.

Hearing the resignation in his father’s voice, Harry took a closer look at him, and only then did he notice how old his father looked that morning. It seemed like he had aged overnight.

“Dad? Are you okay? Is there something you are not telling me?” Harry asked, going to stand in front of his father.

Aaron tried to blink back his tears of guilt and fear before looking at Harry. He shook his head, and without saying another word, he headed for the door.

Harry had a frown on his face as he watched his father leave. His father wasn’t usually the type to act up in such a dramatic manner, so what could be wrong? He wondered as he spread out his work clothes on the bed before going on to shower.

Once he was ready to leave for work, he went to the living room, but he didn’t find his father there as he expected, and so he walked over to his father’s bedroom to check on him.

Immediately he raised his hand to knock on the door, he heard his father groaning and panting as though he was struggling to breathe, and immediately he pushed the door open and hurried into the bedroom, “Dad? Are you okay?” He asked in alarm when he saw his father sitting at the edge of the bed, bent forward with his hand clutching his chest tightly as though he was in pain.

Aaron shook his head, “My… ch.. est. It hurts,” he managed breathlessly.

“Whatever this is about, dad, you can talk to me. If it’s about getting a girlfriend, you don’t have to worry. I told you already that I’m on it. I’m not making any excuses this time, I promise,” Harry said, thinking his father was putting up a show for him, but upon taking a closer look at the beads of sweat coating his father’s brows and seeing how pale he looked, Harry wasn’t so sure anymore, so immediately he took out his phone and called his doctor.

Following the doctor’s instructions, Harry helped his father to sit up on the bed in a way that his back was resting on the headboard of the bed while he answered the doctor’s question about his father’s state.

“I was on my way to my office, but I will stop at your place to check on him. I will join you in ten minutes,” the doctor said before hanging up.

“What is going on, dad? Why are you being this way? You can’t get sick or let anything of the sort happen to you! You shouldn’t! You are all I have!” Harry pleaded desperately, beads of sweat coating his brows as he watched his father, unable to stand seeing his usually lively father looking so dull and pale.

Although Aaron’s eyes were closed, tears slid down his cheeks as he listened to Harry. He wanted to talk to Harry and tell him the truth. Several times over the night, he had stood in front of Harry’s door wanting to go in and tell Harry the truth, but he had been unable to bring himself to do so.

He hadn’t slept a wink all through the night, and he knew that both guilt, fear, and worry were weighing heavily on him, but he couldn’t help it. The more he looked at Harry or listened to his voice, the bigger the weight on his conscience. He was more scared of hurting Harry with the truth than he was of Harry’s anger.

If all he was going to face was Harry’s anger, then he could live with that, but seeing Harry hurt when confronted with the truth that his mother had not wanted him and that all those love stories had all been a lie… He couldn’t. As manly as Harry portrayed himself, he was always going to be his little boy to him, and he didn’t want to see his boy hurt.

“Try to take a deep breath, dad. Slowly,” Harry suggested while praying that the doctor would arrive there sooner than ten minutes.

Harry quickly picked up his phone when it started to ring, thinking it was a phone call from the doctor saying he had arrived, but when he saw that it was Jade who was calling, he declined the call without thinking twice as he didn’t want any other call on his line at that moment until the doctor was present there with them.

Jade called two more times, and he continued to decline her call until he heard the sound of the doorbell, and he spared his father a worried glance before hurrying out of the room to see if it was the doctor and let him in.

Relieved to see the doctor at the door, Harry led him to the bedroom and stood by his father’s bedside anxiously as the doctor checked his blood pressure and did other vital tests.

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